Hi Kyle,

  

[OptimalWorkshop](https://www.optimalworkshop.com/) offers a suite of awesome
tools for IA testing, particularly card sorting and tree sorting exercises.
I've used most of their products and ended up shelling out for the paid
features on one of them, although you can get a lot of mileage from the free
tier if your sample size doesn't need to be very big. Probably the nicest
feature of the tree sorting app is the ability to dump to/import from an .xls
file, which makes saving the results of the exercise really easy.

  

Good luck with your redesign! I'm in the midst of leading one as well.

  

* * *

**  
**

**Nick Budak**

Digital Projects Developer | Watzek Library

Lewis & Clark College

Portland, OR

  
On Sep 6 2016, at 12:08 pm, Kyle Breneman <[log in to unmask]> wrote:  

> Thanks very much for these helpful suggestions of strategies and tools! I  
appreciate your input.

>

> Kyle

>

> On Wed, Aug 31, 2016 at 11:55 AM, Mumpower, Elizabeth Peele <  
[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>

> > Hi Kyle,  
>  
>  
> Our UX/UI person has done some card-based IA testing using the  
> methodology outlined here: <http://boxesandarrows.com/>  
> card-based-classification-evaluation/  
>  
> [http://boxesandarrows.com/files/banda/art_end.gif]<http:  
> //boxesandarrows.com/card-based-classification-evaluation/>  
>  
> Card-Based Classification Evaluation « Boxes and Arrows<  
> <http://boxesandarrows.com/card-based-classification-evaluation/>>  
> boxesandarrows.com  
> Mark the intersection of each scenario and the classification item  
> selected by the participant. I usually use capital letters for first  
> choices and ...  
>  
> If you have any questions about it, I can put you in touch with him.  
>  
> Thanks,  
>  
> Elizabeth Peele Mumpower  
> Systems Librarian  
> Emory University  
>  
> ________________________________  
> From: Code for Libraries <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of Kyle  
> Breneman <[log in to unmask]>  
> Sent: Wednesday, August 31, 2016 9:48 AM  
> To: [log in to unmask]  
> Subject: [CODE4LIB] Methods to test new site IA?  
>  
> Apologies for cross-listing...  
>  
> I need some advice on user testing methods. I've embarked on a project to  
> redo our library website's information architecture. I've sketched out a  
> new IA for the site which I want to test with users. Initially I thought  
> that I would just build out the new IA on our development server, then do  
> usability testing with users on the dev site. Now I'm realizing that will  
> be a lot of work, and making any changes once its built will also take  
> time. Is there a middle ground? Are there good ways to do some user  
> testing with paper prototypes? I want to get feedback on whether my  
> categories and labels are intuitive and meaningful.  
>  
> Kyle Breneman  
>  
> Integrated Digital Services Librarian  
>  
> University of Baltimore  
>  
> ________________________________  
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